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Shuttlepod (22nd century)
In the 2150s and early 2160s, shuttlepods were used by the Earth Starfleet to transport personnel to and from planets and/or spacecraft. Arrangement and Capabilities In the mid-22nd century, shuttlepods were able to seat a pilot and six passengers, although conditions aboard the vehicles were cramped. An NX class starship was usually equipped with two shuttlepods that were carried in the vessel's launch bay, located on F Deck. (ENT: "Broken Bow") The vehicles had an entrance on the roof, one at either side and a large entrance at the back. To achieve space travel, shuttlepods were lowered through a set of doors by a magnetic docking arm. The arm released the shuttlepod once it was safely positioned beneath the starship's hull. (ENT: "Fight or Flight", "Broken Bow") Shuttlepods were capable of impulse only. (ENT: "Strange New World") A shuttlepod's com array allowed subspace communications over large distances. Photonic torpedoes were capable of knocking a com array off a shuttlepod without scratching the craft's hull. (ENT: "The Expanse") Shuttlepods were equipped with plasma cannons and had the capacity to distinguish between Vulcan and Human biosigns even in a snowstorm. However, atmospheric conditions could have a detrimental effect on a shuttlepod's communications and sensor capabilities. (ENT: "Shuttlepod One", "Broken Bow") Also, universal translators were usually not stored aboard the vehicles and they were not equipped with toilet facilities. (ENT: "Dawn", "Similitude") Actualy, there is never said onscreen what where the shuttlepod's wepon systems in 2151 and 2152. In both ENT: Shadows of P'Jem and ENT: Desert Crossing the pods ar firing some kind of plasma cannons. However in Detained the Shuttlepod 2 is firing some kind of Phase weapons History The NX class ''Enterprise'' first used a shuttlepod, named simply Shuttlepod 1, in 2151. The shuttlepod transported an away team to the surface of Rigel X, a planet in the Rigel system. The craft returned the officers to Enterprise, but was damaged by Suliban soldiers when ascending into the planet's atmosphere. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Shuttlepod 1 was used again to transport a team of officers to the planet Archer IV, named after Jonathan Archer - Enterprise's commanding officer. The team stayed overnight, but were infected by hallucinogenic pollen. Captain Archer piloted Shuttlepod 2 into the planet's atmosphere, but was unable to rescue the officers due to extreme storm conditions. The following day, Shuttlepod 2 returned the team to Enterprise. (ENT: "Strange New World") In 2153, during the NX class ''Enterprise'''s search for the Xindi superweapon in the Delphic Expanse, the crew insulated the hull of one of the shuttlepods aboard the vessel with trellium-D. It took at least twelve hours to reconfigure the shuttlepod's hull. (ENT: "Exile") Following the destruction of the Xindi superweapon, Enterprise returned to Earth. However, the starship's crew had unknowningly been sent to an alternate timeline where the year was 1944. Puzzled that Starfleet Headquarters was not responding to communications, Commander Charles Tucker and Ensign Travis Mayweather tried to take Shuttlepod 1 to San Francisco. In Earth's atmosphere, the craft was attacked by a small formation of P-51 Mustangs, German World War 2-era aircraft. When the planes suddenly left the battle, Tucker told Mayweather to look for a landing port on the ground. The shuttlepod was suddenly attacked by heavy anti-aircraft artillery that damaged the shuttlepod's starboard plasma injector, forcing Tucker and Mayweather to flee back to the orbiting Enterprise. (ENT: "Zero Hour", "Storm Front") Later, Commander Tucker helped to remove three .50 caliber bullets from the shuttlepod's hull. In launch bay one, the engineer discovered that the craft's EPS conduit was badly damaged. He asked an engineering officer named Walsh to retrieve a replacement EPS conduit from the injector assembly in Engineering. Alone in the launch bay, Tucker was attacked by Silik, a Suliban agent. Silik stunned the engineer with a Suliban disruptor and launched a shuttlepod on a course to Earth. After Enterprise detected a single Suliban life-sign aboard the craft, the ship fired phase cannons and struck the shuttlepod twice. However, the crew of Enterprise was unaware that Tucker's unconscious body was aboard the shuttlepod and that Silik had used his genetic modifications to disguise himself as the engineer. As the shuttlepod's transponder had been deactivated, Enterprise was unable to acquire a lock on the craft. Trace plasma signatures caused by damage to the shuttlepod indicated the craft's approximate position. An away team that consisted of Ensign Mayweather and Silik, still disguised as Commander Tucker, beamed to within three kilometers of the downed craft. They successfully located the shuttlepod, but found it had been apparently abandoned and severely damaged. When the pod was surrounded by German Nazi forces, the away team destroyed the shuttlepod with explosives. (ENT: "Storm Front") After Enterprise returned to the 22nd century, a Starfleet shuttlepod carried the vessel's senior officers to San Francisco Bay Stadium on Earth. Unlike the shuttlepods that the starship crew were accustomed to, the Starfleet shuttlepod had blue and silver streamlines and a registry number - NC-05. (ENT: "Home") Enterprise carried Shuttlepods 1 and 2 until the starship was retired from active service in 2161. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") Appearances *ENT **"Broken Bow" (Season 1) **"Fight or Flight" **"Strange New World" ** "Unexpected" ** "Terra Nova" ** "The Andorian Incident" ** "Breaking the Ice" ** "Civilization" ** "Fortunate Son" ** "Dear Doctor" ** "Sleeping Dogs" ** "Shadows of P'Jem" ** "Shuttlepod One" ** "Rogue Planet" ** "Oasis" ** "Detained" ** "Vox Sola" ** "Desert Crossing" ** "Two Days and Two Nights" ** "Shockwave, Part I" ** "Marauders" (Season 2) ** "The Seventh" ** "The Communicator" ** "Dawn" ** "Stigma" ** "Cease Fire" ** "Canamar" ** "The Crossing" ** "The Breach" ** "First Flight" ** "Bounty" ** "The Xindi" (Season 3) ** "Anomaly" ** "Extinction" ** "Rajiin" ** "Impulse" ** "Exile" ** "The Shipment" ** "North Star" ** "Similitude" ** "Chosen Realm" ** "Stratagem" ** "Hatchery" ** "The Council" ** "Zero Hour" ** "Storm Front" (Season 4) ** "Home" ** "Observer Effect" ** "Babel One" ** "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" ** "Demons" ** "Terra Prime" ** "These Are the Voyages..." Background The text commentary on "First Flight" from the ENT Season 2 DVD reveals that most of the controls in a shuttlepod's cockpit are labelled with the same terminology as NASA space shuttles. The commentary, written by Michael and Denise Okuda, also reveals that almost all of the control panels aboard a shuttlepod had to be custom-designed to fit a specific place in the cockpit. Consequently, the control panels could be customized for the shuttlepod. de:Shuttle (2150er) Federation shuttlepod (22nd century)